If Moore’s “law”, that integrated
circuits tend to double in speed and halve in size every 18 months, is to
continue, then, at some point in the future, microelectronic circuit
components will have to use single molecules, with dimensions of 1-5 nm each,
which is known as molecular electronics.The basic conponent is a molecular
diode or rectifier, which shows a very asymmetric current-voltage(I-V) characteristic as a semi-conductor diode does. We
have demonstrated the unimolecular electrical rectification in a LB monolayer
of zwitterionic hexadecylquinolinium
tricyanoquinodimethanide between gold electrodes. The top-gold electrode was
deposited using a technique called “cold gold
evaporation”.
Now, we are working on other potential electrical rectifying molecules using
this technique.